Kingdom of the Isles

The Kingdom of the Isles (837-1281) comrpised the Hebrides, the islands of the Firth of Clyde, the Isle of Man, Caithness and Sutherland, and the Orkney Islands from the 9th to 13th centuries AD.

History
Established in 837 when the Norwegian Vikings invaded Britannia, the Kingdom of the Isles consisted of many islands off the coast of Scotland as well as the Isle of Man. The Kingdom was ruled by Norway's kings, and was more of a string of Norwegian territories than an independent kingdom.

In the 1200s, the Norwegians came into conflict with Scotland, who wanted to reclaim their islands from Scots Rebels and the Norwegians. In 1268, King Haakon IV of Norway landed in Wick in Highland (northern Scotland) with a large army of Viking raiders. The Scottish noble Alexander Comyn pre-emptively attacked the Norwegians in 1271, seeking to prevent a full-scale war in which the Norwegians would be ready. The Norwegian army won against Scotland many times, with their capture of Inverness killing many Scottish nobles. In 1276 the Scottish recaptured Inverness, and King Haakon IV was slain. King Alexander III of Scotland led maritime invasions of the Norwegian islands, picking off their strongholds one-by-one. When King Magnus VI of Norway died in 1281, Norway was left with no family members and their Kingdom of the Isles fragmented into independent rebel states as there was no leader left to rule.